Smoking is a technique used for giving rustic flavors to a dish. It’s particularly done either on a dal or chicken. Smoking can give a world of a difference to tout everyday simple dal and make you feel as if you are having a meal in a dhaba. I had often tasted smoked dal and chicken in Higway dhabas and trust me they taste amazing. The smoke gets infused so well and enhances the flavors so beautifully ….aaah! absolutely divine. Did you know that smoking a dish can be done even at home. Yes! you heard that right, it’s no rocket science. All you need is bits and pieces of charcoal and some ghee and…tadaaa! You are done. Wanna know how??? Okay lemme share my simple method of how to do charcoal smoking on a simple dal fry.
Charcoal smoking gives best flavors when done on either dal makhni or a dal fry. Today i chose to have dal fry. Arhar or Tuvar dal boiled with some tomatoes , turmeric and salt and later tempered with cumin, garlic, onion, green chilies and later garnished with coriander. So now as we are done with our daily dal fry let’s check how to infuse smokey flavors in it –
1. First take a broad based serving bowl or you can do the charcoal smoking directly in the wok as well. I personally chose to do it on the serving dish specially in front of the guests just before serving. 😉
2. Take a small copper or a steel bowl and cover it with a piece of aluminium foil.
3. Place the bowl right between the dal.
4. Add 1-2 tbsp of butter in the bowl.
5. Now take a dry charcoal piece. It should not be wet or should not have moisture in it.
6. Take a tong/ chimta and hold the charcoal piece with it.
7. Light up the gas and place the charcoal piece on the flames holding it firmly and carefully with the tong.
8. Within a minute the charcoal with start fuming and you can see it burning.
9. Immediately transfer the charcoal on the aluminium covered small bowl placed between the dal and cover the lid.
10. As there is ghee in the bowl, the charcoal will fume up and release lot of smoke.
11. As the lid is closed the smoke will infuse inside leaving all it’s flavor inside the dal.
12. Let the lid be closed for few minutes so that the flavors get more prominent.
13. Remove the lid now serve the hot and smoked dal fry with your favorite tandoori roti or naan.
You can take out the charcoal and when it cools down completely you can store it and use it all over again whenever you want to enjoy a dhaba style dal fry 🙂
Complete Bliss!
